napi21 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-28-08 08:26 AM
Original message (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4109917)
What is this group called Acorn that I keep hearing about?

There were several callers on the WJ this AM yelling about them being an organization of criminals & assoc. with Obama.

barbtries Donating Member (1000+ posts) JSun Sep-28-08 08:34 AM
Response to Original message
5. ok after reading a little more
the republicans are saying the group, which advocates for low income housing, is involved in "voter fraud." how dare they register voters? we all know that "voter fraud" is a bullshit term that republicans use to keep the people from being able to circumvent their very real ELECTION fraud.

so there you have it. it's politics as always.

Reality bites:

ACORN Workers Indicted For Alleged Voter Fraud

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Four people have been indicted on charges of voter fraud in Kansas City, officials said Wednesday.

Investigators said questionable registration forms for new voters were collected by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a group that works to improve minority and low-income communities.

The four indicted -- Kwaim A. Stenson, Dale D. Franklin, Stephanie L. Davis and Brian Gardner -- were employed by ACORN as registration recruiters. They were each charged with two counts.

Recent Fraud (http://rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html)

State Year Details
AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.

CO 2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.

2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.

FL 2004 A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.

MI 2004 The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.

MO 2007 Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
2006 Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.

NM 2005 Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
2004 An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.

OH 2007 A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
2004 A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.

MN 2004 During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.

PA 2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
2004 Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.

TX 2004 ACORN turned in the voter registration form of David Young, who told reporters “The signature is not my signature. It’s not even close.” His social security number and date of birth were also incorrect.

VA 2005 In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.
In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. "Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia."

WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.

WI 2004 The district attorney’s office investigated seven voter registration applications Project Vote employees filed in the names of people who said the group never contacted them. Former Project Vote employee Robert Marquise Blakely told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had not met with any of the people whose voter registration applications he signed, “an apparent violation of state law,” according to the paper.

Edited on Sun Sep-28-08 01:29 PM by FVZA_Colonel
It's hard to imagine how a community activist group could be at fault, but the meme is still going around that their assistance to "the poor" and "minorities" is the root cause of this financial crisis. Oh, and throw in some Carter and Clinton bashing for good measure.

Where did they come up with this stuff?

On Edit: And now there's the annual "attack ACORN for voter fraud," no matter how many names turned in were legitimate.

GrumpyOldLady

09-28-2008, 03:11 PM

More proof that DUmp monkeys hide their heads in the sand.

Exactly. Pretty damn amazing, isn't it?
Talk about 'useless eatters'.

movie buff

09-28-2008, 07:03 PM

"we all know that "voter fraud" is a bullshit term that republicans use"

The DUmmies didn't seem to have a problem trying to use that term against Ann Coulter when she was suspected of it.

Doc Savage

09-28-2008, 07:16 PM

On Edit: And now there's the annual "attack ACORN for voter fraud," no matter how many names turned in were legitimate.

It is not a problem with legitimate names, it was all the dead people and illegals that they registered that were the problem you idiots!!!!!!!

biccat

09-28-2008, 10:19 PM

And sexist! And age-ist! And, and, weight-ist! Freaks :rolleyes:
It appears you didn't get the memo. It's OK to be sexist and age-ist at the DUmp now.

Carol

09-28-2008, 11:30 PM

Minnesota_Lib (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-28-08 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
29. Acorn was the victim of fraud, not the perpetrator.
The right keeps bringing up all these cases of Acorn “voter fraud,” but in reality Acorn was the victim, not the perpetrator. Acorn paid canvassers—some per hour and some per registration—and occasionally unscrupulous canvassers would just forge registration cards to rip off Acorn. Remember, these forged cards don’t translate into actual votes no matter what the right would have us believe.

To my knowledge, Acorn has never been prosecuted for voter fraud. In fact, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired in part because he refused to prosecute Acorn. According to Iglesias, he was ordered to prosecute Acorn by the White House, but he declined after failing to find any credible evidence of wrongdoing on Acorn's part. He was subsequently fired--yes, he is one of those U.S. Attorneys. (More about Acorn and Iglesias's firing at http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4372 )

The only ones ever prosecuted, as far as I know, were the dishonest canvassers who defrauded Acorn. The fact is that the right spins these cases just to deflect from their own string of election thefts.

Lately, the right is also using Acorn as a scapegoat for their own failed economic policies. Next will they will be blaming Acorn for getting Caribou Barbie’s daughter pregnant. Yep. ACORN does nothing to monitor voter fraud by thier employees, in fact encourages it by paying for the number of Democrat voters it registers.

but, but, but.....it's really ACORN who was the victim.:rolleyes:

d_va

09-29-2008, 09:47 AM

Wasn't Obama once a lawyer for this group? So much I don't know about him :(

LibraryLady

09-29-2008, 10:02 AM

In 1995, Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar balked at implementing the federal motor voter law out of concern that letting people register via postcard and blocking the state from pruning voter rolls might invite vote fraud.

A young lawyer, a community organizer himself, sued on behalf of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) and won. The young lawyer was Barack Obama. Acorn later invited Obama to train its staff.

When Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund for Chicago with Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, the Woods Fund frequently gave Acorn grants to fund its agenda and voter registration activities.

Acorn has been in the lead in opposing voter ID laws and other efforts to ensure ballot integrity. Acorn has been implicated in voter fraud and bogus registration schemes in Ohio and at least 13 other states. Acorn staffers will presumably be out registering voters again this year.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=302914868143810

Obama and ACORN - it's a power thing (http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-and-acorn-its-a-power-thing)

Good source

d_va

09-29-2008, 12:16 PM

Oh boy.....he sued banks for not loaning money to minorities ! Wonder if that had anything to do if they were "qualified" ?

"I don't recall him ever standing up and giving an impassioned speech -- it was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff," said Fay Clayton, the lead lawyer on the case.

LibraryLady

09-29-2008, 10:58 PM

AlanColmes was just defending ACORN as if they were the Boy Scouts. How stupid are Dems?

JB

09-29-2008, 11:32 PM

Reality bites:

Recent FraudKick and a LMAO at DUmmies.

AmPat

09-30-2008, 01:16 AM

Quote:
barbtries Donating Member (1000+ posts) JSun Sep-28-08 08:34 AM
Response to Original message
5. ok after reading a little more
the republicans are saying the group, which advocates for low income housing, is involved in "voter fraud." how dare they register voters? we all know that "voter fraud" is a bullshit term that republicans use to keep the people from being able to circumvent their very real ELECTION fraud.

so there you have it. it's politics as always.
Sooooooooooooo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I don't like rules and a level playing field so it's ok for me to cheat and Republicans are bad because they insist upon those pesky rules.:rolleyes: